Acute myocarditis and acute myopathy as the first manifestations of COVID-19; a case report

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mainly manifests with flu-like and respiratory symptoms such as fever, chill, myalgia, cough, dyspnea and in severe cases, it leads to acute respiratory distress syndrome and respiratory failure. However, there is evidence of extra-pulmonary involvements in patients with COVID-19. Some case reports and studies have reported severe and life-threatening complications related to COVID-19 such as cardiovascular complications (acute heart failure, myocarditis, acute coronary syndrome, thromboembolic events) and neuromuscular complications (stroke, transient ischemic attack, myositis, myopathy, Guillain-Barre syndrome). Here, we report a 51-year-old woman without a previous history of cardiovascular disease or neuromuscular disease referred to the emergency department of our hospital with new onset severe respiratory distress and progressive symmetric quadriparesis. We concluded that, the patient was infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and we therefore have encountered acute myocarditis and acute myopathy due to COVID-19 disease. In the intensive care unit (ICU), the patient was treated with oxygen therapy without mechanical ventilation, dexamethasone, intravenous human immunoglobulin (IVIG), beta interferon and remdesivir. The clinical feature, cardiac, respiratory, neuromuscular and hemodynamic parameters improved clearly five days after taking above mentioned treatments. The troponin, N-terminal pro-B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), creatine phosphokinase (CPK), returned to normal values. Following improvement of cardiac and neurologic problems, the patient was transferred from ICU to general ward and then after 10 days, she was discharged with oral anticoagulant, anti-platelet, low-dose of corticosteroids and other conservative treatments.

Keywords: COVID-19 disease, Acute myocarditis, Acute myopathy